Karl Steven (Drab Doo Riffs, Supergroove)
Neil Baldock is the in-house producer and chief engineer at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios.
Peter Wadams is NZ’s most accomplished Hip-Hop producer, co-owner of independent record label Dirty Records (est. 2002) and is a multi-platinum recording artist and songwriter in his own right. He was awarded the “Producer of the Year Award” at the New Zealand Music Awards and the APRA Silver Scroll Award for “Songwriter Of The Year” in 2004.
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Producer Simon Holloway established Beaver in 1991. He has worked with pretty much everyone in the New Zealand music industry during that time and has numerous gold and platinum records. His productions have significantly contributed to New Zealand artists’ increased chart presence in their home territory over the last decade, exemplified at one stage in 2004 by his having mixed or produced 20% of the records on both the NZ Top 20 singles and album charts.
Simon has been a finalist for both Producer and Engineer of the Year at the New Zealand Music Awards, and was a finalist for Songwriter of the Year at the 2001 NZ APRA Silver Scroll Awards.
Website: https://simongoodingproductions.com/
Simon’s early love of playing and performing music led him down the path of audio engineering and production. Beginning his career at Studios 301 in Byron Bay (Aus), Simon interned after the completion of his BA (Hons) in Recording Arts at SAE.
Steve Roberts started his career as an assistant engineer at Auckland’s York Street Recording Studios in 2002. In 2004 he took over as Head Engineer where he stayed until Mid 2006 when he moved to the UK to further his career.
In his time engineering and producing Steve has worked with Tricky, Soul II Soul, Mutya Buena, Face (So Solid Crew), P Money, Che Fu, Dave Dobbyn, Jayson Norris, V V Brown, The Funk Fanatics, The Bleeders, Concord Dawn, Steriogram, Miriam Clancy, Frontline, Scribe, Fast Crew, The Electric Confectionaires, Money Mark & Ad Rock (Beastie Boys), Black Eyed Peas, Bruce Conlon, Brooke Fraser, Opshop, Blindspott, The Feelers, 50 Cent and G Unit and many more…
Tom Larkin is a Producer, Drummer and Manager. He resides in Australia and is the founding member of the New Zealand hard rock band Shihad. He also currently owns and runs two studios located in Melbourne, Victoria and runs a music management and artist development company called Homesurgery.
Vitaly [Vit-ta-lee] Zolotarev has been the exclusive engineer for the # 1 urban Independent Label Dawn Raid Entertainment for over 8 years. Vitaly branched out on his own in 2007 to form Vitaly Music and work as an independent contractor.
Vitaly has worked on both local and international projects with gold & Platinum artists across a broad spectrum of genre’s including work with Savage, Mareko, Adeaze, Aaradhna, Sweet & Irie, Nesian Mystik, J Williams (NZ), Paul Mac, Young Divas, NFA (1200 Techniques) (AUS) Akon, Boo Ya Tribe, Baby Bash, David Banner (US).
OK, so you became a happy owner of a brand new computer and software, an audio interface and a shiny microphone. You feel like the lord of the sound and just mentioning ‘music career’ makes your heart pound and bursts your chest open. You even read your DAW’s (digital audio workstation) manual. Man, it was hard! Fortunately for you the modern technology allows you recording and mixing music yourself. No need for an expensive studio any more. What a cost cut!
Finally, the day comes to mix your first song, your baby. How exciting! It’s like sitting in the driver’s seat for the first time. And here comes the tough question – where to begin?
From the Producer’s Chair
Reflecting on the economic disaster of 2009 producer Simon Holloway suggests the current awards season’s focus on the music and other creative industries presents an opportunity for a revisionist look at recent popular output. He argues the current economic collapse is in fact due to a crisis in cultural capital and explains what musicians collectively can do to alleviate the issue.
If you look back beyond the collapsing banks, the furious swapping of mortgage derivatives, and the resulting strangulation of credit when the trading reached its inevitable zenith, then what is revealed is a generation of consumption fuelling an increasingly overvalued bubble of assets. To keep the bubble growing there had to be an ever more accessible credit line and with that came the expectation for many that a lifetime of indebtedness was the norm, and that capital appreciation meant that, somehow, sort-of, you were ahead on the ledger.
NZAMP.org is launched during October 2009.
There are many factors as to why radio won’t play your music but one of the major ones is that no-one knows about you. Producers can provide a plan and project timeline for artists with no industry contacts, or else utilize your contact base to fast-track the timeline.
First time success in this industry is very rare and it’s usually a case of profile build-up with 3 tracks over a 12-18 month timeline for a new artist.
Traditionally artists have looked towards New Zealand on Air’s single budget ($5,000 + GST) as a rough estimate for what a professionally single recorded should cost. The emphasis here is on professionally RECORDED. This figure concentrates on the recording aspect of a single and unfortunately does not take into account what a producer can bring to the table with regards to song, sonic direction, arrangement, contacts, and the work involved to complete a recording which has a higher chance of commercial success.
You could argue that if a song has received this funding then it should probably have a good chance of commercial success anyway but if you look at the statistics as to which songs have a life after NZOA funding then more often than not they are the ones which have involved a producer.
A video is more important than ever as it is likely the first point of contact with a potential fan – usually online via sites such as YouTube.
There are many factors as to why radio won’t play your music but one of the major ones is that no-one knows about you. Producers can provide a plan and project timeline for artists with no industry contacts, or else utilize your contact base to fast-track the timeline.
First time success in this industry is very rare and it’s usually a case of profile build-up with 3 tracks over a 12-18 month timeline for a new artist.
A video is more important than ever as it is likely the first point of contact with a potential fan – usually online via sites such as YouTube.
Traditionally artists have looked towards New Zealand on Air’s single budget ($5,000 + GST) as a rough estimate for what a professionally single recorded should cost. The emphasis here is on professionally RECORDED. This figure concentrates on the recording aspect of a single and unfortunately does not take into account what a producer can bring to the table with regards to song, sonic direction, arrangement, contacts, and the work involved to complete a recording which has a higher chance of commercial success.
You could argue that if a song has received this funding then it should probably have a good chance of commercial success anyway but if you look at the statistics as to which songs have a life after NZOA funding then more often than not they are the ones which have involved a producer.
As soon as possible. Having an experience producer involved from the onset of a project can provide realistic estimates on costs, time, and artistic statements. What you may spend getting a producer involved early on can make a huge difference to savings further down the line as more often than not artists will find themselves rewriting, retracking, and remixing material to try and break themselves into the industry.